Monday, November 30, 2009

As announced a few weeks ago, I've asked three independent bookstores to contribute to this year's Favorite Covers of 2009 coverage. Here are the selections from the staff of WORD in Brooklyn, NY. Three more lists (including my selections) are on the way.

The only guideline I asked the good folks at WORD to follow was to limit their selections to books published this year, so I was glad to see them include some YA and children's books -- I don't get around to discussing either genre very often.

I couldn't chase down all the design credits, so if you know something I don't, please set me on the right track so that I can give proper credit for this fantastic work. And of course correct me if I've gotten something wrong.

There's a poll at the bottom of the post: vote for your favorite. The top three vote-getting designs from this list will eventually join the other favorites from the upcoming lists in a final poll.

Lastly: each title is linked to WORD's online store. Something tickling your fancy? Support indie bookstores and buy from them.

WORD's favorite covers of the year, in no particular order, are:

Wuthering Heights, design by Ruben Toledo: "This is our favorite of the three covers Toledo did for Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions."

The Sickness Unto Death, design by David Pearson: "This is really a shout-out to the entire line-up of the newest installment of the Penguin Great Ideas series, though this is probably our favorite cover of the bunch. These are some of the most irresistible book covers I have ever seen. They're all embossed. Almost everyone who looks at them touches them and then moans ecstatically."

Seven Nights, design by Rodrigo Corral: "Love this so much that I continually re-display it just to look at it."

Pure, design by Cara Petrus: "a teen novel about purity rings and the girls who wear them (and a girl who breaks her pledge). "

The Book of Fathers: design by John Gall, collage by Nicole Natri: "The men and the arms on the cover are raised. It's possible we just like this because it looks like the art of a former employee. Didn't love it at first, but it has really grown on us since it came in, to the point that now we love it."

Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image; design by Mark Abrams, cover image by Jim Fitzpatrick, original photo by Alberto Korda: "There could be no better cover for a book about history's most reproduced image."

The Children's Book, design by Stephen Parker, "adapted by Gabrielle Wilson" (per the jacket): "A beautiful cover that only gets more beautiful after you've read the book."

The City Out My Window: "The only die-cut we will ever like in this store (we hate die cuts because they inevitably rip on the floor, no matter what you do with them, and then nobody wants to buy them). But this one is thick cardboard, and obviously a perfect choice of a book of window pictures."

23 comments:

These are all gorgeous. Of course I am partial to "The Children's Book" because the dragonfly is a corsage ornament (titled "Femme-libellule") by one of my favorite artists, René Lalique. But the Nabokov covers are also unspeakably wonderful. I think it's high time I read more of him than just Lolita!

The cover of "The Most Beautiful Book in the World" is taken from the french movie filmed by the author of the 8 novellas, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.So for me the design work is not so great, it's a cut and paste from the movie poster. See here

E: I did not provide anyone with a list of criteria. These were chosen by bookstore employees, so I'm guessing there are many criteria: appropriateness of the cover w/ respect to the book itself (these folks certainly read more than I do); customer reaction; and yes, they like them.

It pleases me that the designer of the Nabokov cover knew that Nabokov was a lepidopterist. It's an elegant wink to a brilliant author (who wrote in various genres and various languages, as hinted at by the various font styles). Nice work, Barbara!